An Emergency Aircraft Safety Inspection
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on April 21 that it would conduct an emergency safety inspection on nine local airlines’ 400 planes until the end of next month. The ministry is going to analyze the one-year defect history of each plane and recheck their parts that are likely to malfunction.
At the same time, the ministry is planning to ban the nighttime and long-distance operations of their planes that have been in operation for 20 years or more and those that have frequently malfunctioned. Also, it is going to look into about 237 pilots who conducted an abnormal flight operation within the past three years or have a career of less than one year. Those who fail to pass its evaluation can return only after retraining and reexamination.
Moreover, simulated flight training for coping with engine stop and bad weather is to be conducted every six months instead of every year and that for coping with cabin pressurization system failure is to be conducted every two years instead of every three years. The ratio of the government’s surprise inspections regarding aircraft maintenance and operation is planned to be raised from 5 percent to 10 percent of the total.
These measures have to do with a series of recent incidents that affected aviation safety. For instance, tires of an Asiana Airlines plane were damaged during its landing in Gwangju on April 10 and a Korean Air plane had to return for an engine failure immediately after its takeoff in Gimpo on April 11.